30 Movie Posters Where Ben Affleck Stares Into the Distance and Contemplates Stuff

Ben Affleck is a man of many talents: A-list movie star, director, producer, Matt Damon’s BFF, Batman, vape enthusiast, and this week he’s an autistic accountant moonlighting as an action-hero in The Accountant. But there’s just one skill he can’t seem to master, and it’s knowing what to do with his face in movie posters. Like Adam Sandler, who gives the same look in almost every single poster, Affleck also has a very specific default facial expression: Blankly staring off into the distance.

What is he looking at? What is he thinking about? Why won’t he make eye contact with us? Doesn’t he know we have trust issues?!

Um, anyway, the gallery above is an attempt to solve this great cinematic mystery and decipher the enigma that is Ben Affleck’s beautiful mind and maybe, in the process, we will learn something about life itself.

Affleck’s default poster expression is a contemplative one that seems to say “I’d rather be anywhere else than on this movie poster. Like maybe even Applebee’s. They have dollar margaritas on Wednesdays ... or so I’ve been told.” Or maybe, “I wonder what Matt is doing right now…” The refusal to make eye contact could be his way of conveying moral superiority, or perhaps he’s averting his precious eyes from some hideous travesty — like maybe the photographer is wearing Birkenstocks in December.

That deceptively simple facial expression contains multitudes, really. Or maybe it doesn’t. Maybe he’s just hearing Enya’s “Orinoco Flow” on a loop in his head while reflecting on his glory days ... or his goatee in the movie Glory Daze.